I visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn last week. Care to take a look? (Pic heavy with vids)
Last edited Thu Sep 18, 2014, 12:16 AM - Edit history (1)
I visited this museum when I lived in the area in the 1990's and they have updated their collection since then. There is now an IMAX Theater and the entrance to the museum is now at the corner of the building, instead of the southern side.
This place is a machinery/history nerds paradise! So, take a walk with me and I'll show you some of what I looked at.
THE ENTRANCE HALL
The new entrance area with the Farm Implement/Machinery display in the distance;
To the right of the above photo sits one of the Oscar Meyer Weener mobiles;
FARM MACHINERY
One of the turn of the century Steam "Traction Engines" they have. I intentionally took this shot with the man in the frame to give a sense of scale. He was easily 6' 1" and even though he is closer to the camera, it gives an idea how large the rear wheels are - at least 7 1/2' in diameter. What I find fascinating about these engines is how low the horsepower was - about 30 with this one, if I remember correctly - but the massive amount of torque they could generate because unlike a gasoline piston engine, a steam engine is powered on both sides of the stroke;
INDUSTRIAL STEAM
There is an area dedicated to large Steam Engines used for various purposes including electrical generating and for operating an entire factory floor of machines, such as a textile mill. This is one I found interesting and rather beautiful, as the cylinder is clad in wood;
The Flywheel for the above machine. Note the trench in the floor allowing the engine to be mounted at floor level but providing space for the flywheel to rotate;
A closer shot of the Flywheel and trench;
A steam powered electric generator of the type installed at the very first Edison power plant in New York City. Easily 12 to 15' above the floor and several below floor level;
The centerpiece of the steam engine collection is a massive unit, a dual cylinder electric dynamo, one of six installed at the original Highland Park Ford factory. They transported this one from the old plant and basically built the museum around it!
Here's the plaque describing it with a short video I made to follow;
Sorry about the audio quality, as I didn't want to be too loud!
In my narration I say that the stroke is "four or five feet". Clearly the plaque says 72", So...I was wrong, but still....A SIX FOOT STROKE! Amazing.
Another vid of a model depicting a machine shop operated by a single steam engine;
AVIATION
Moving on...they have updated their aviation display since I was here. They have this copy of the Wright Flyer. This particular aircraft I have seen before, as it was on display at an Open House held at Edwards AFB in California in 2002. This airplane was built to exactly copy the original, right down to the fabric on the wings and the way that fabric was made. Their intent was to fly it at Kill Devil Hills, NC at the exact moment on the 100th anniversary of the first Wright Brothers flight, 10:35 AM, December 17th, 2003. They were ready to go, but the weather did not cooperate so they couldn't pull it off. Imagine flying this thing, steering it by shifting your hips!;
They have a couple "Tri-Motor" type aircraft, this one is representing the Byrd Arctic Expedition;
And this beautiful example of a Douglas DC-3 which is mounted in the center-line of the old entrance hall;
TRANSPORTATION
The Automotive collection is, as one might expect, impressive. Being a truck driver, I was taken by the examples of trucks they had. The way it was done at the dawn of the motorized delivery truck;
A beautifully restored 1952 Federal 45M Tractor and Fruehauf Trailer. (Hat tip to DU'er Lithos for setting me straight on the make and year of the tractor) I regret not taking a photo of the plaque;
There were too many cars to photograph each one, so I just got a few interesting examples.
When racecars looked like racecars!;
A line showing the advancement of the motorcar;
RAILROADS
The Railroad hall includes this enormous 2-6-6-6 "Allegheny" Steam Locomotive, among the largest and most powerful Steam Locomotives ever built;
If you look closely enough or have a way to zoom in, that's me hanging out the Engineers window!;
A model of the locomotive to give you a different perspective;
A short video I made of it. I state it is a "2-6-6-4" Missed the rear truck by 2 wheels!
Henry Ford's private rail car, the "Fairlane";
A Huge wedge style snowplow;
PRESIDENTIAL LIMOUSINES
They have a collection of Presidential Limousines. First in line is the Horse-drawn Brougham used by Theodore Roosevelt;
The FDR "Sunshine Special";
The Eisenhower "Bubbletop";
The Kennedy Car;
Plaque for the above;
The Reagan Car;
ODDS AND ENDS
The at one time ubiquitous Holiday Inn Sign. There are only a handful of these left still operating. An American Icon for decades;
A wall of curious devices, probably used sometime in the Jurassic period! I suspect they were used for something like cracking nuts or training Kookaburras to mate.
A close-up of one corner of the above display. I took all these pictures as well as the videos with a hand held device completely unthinkable when the first of these phones was made.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed putting it together. It is really a superb museum and well worth the visit if you are ever in the Detroit area. I suppose you could spend a day and a half if you were to read every plaque, but I was through in about 4 hours.
Here's their website;
http://www.thehenryford.org/index.aspx
= new reply since forum marked as read
contained most of the material Hitler based "Mein Kampf" on.
Joe Kennedy Sr., was a fascist jerk(and it's unforgiveable that he had his daughter Rosemary lobotomized-a procedure that left her massively impaired for life)but he doesn't have anything like THAT on his record.
If I sound like a wet blanket here, sorry...but "cool stuff" doesn't make things like this not matter:
Great pictures - thank you for posting!
These pics brought back memories
I have a permanent souvenir of The Henry Ford in the form of a small scar on my forehead.My parents took us to the museum when I was 4 years old,I was bored and decided to flip on one of those velvet ropes protecting something from crowds and hit the corner of a metal post holding the ropes.Needless to say,it ruined my parents trip to the museum.
You can barely make out the Roadway tractor trailer behind it in that shot. A single axle Ford tractor of the type that Roadway bought several thousand. Another all too common sight on the highways in the 60's and 70's.
Like this one;
It was just positioned in such a way as to not allow a decent shot of it.
I know my SO would love to visit this place. I've never even set foot in Michigan, but we just loved Chicago and will be visiting again soon, and we thought about driving through Michigan to the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, so maybe we can plan this, too... He would enjoy this.
Really loved these pics and the info! 
While Detroit gets a bad rap, Michigan is quite a beautiful state and the Detroit area has much to offer, this museum being just one.
You won't regret including this in your trip, and when you make it, drive safe and enjoy!
I'd take my brother, who's a hopeless gearhead, and could expound for hours on each and every item there.
Thanks for this great photo essay!
Some du'ers need to medicate their brainal hemorrhoids. The pissy comments are unwarranted, and not in the generous spirit in which you shared your trip with us. Thank you.
I remember seeing it race on TV. It was a sled, but it was a cool sled!
You had me at the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, and it just got better and better. Thanks, also, to poster Navarth for mentioning that the Rosa Parks bus exhibit is also there. I saw the moving picture of President Obama sitting in her seat but did not make the connection to the bus being in Detroit. I have never been to Detroit but hope to go in the near future to see the fabulous collection at the art museum and now will include this too.
[img]
[/img]
Your photo "When racecars looked like racecars!" nudged a memory and I had to check-yep-you picked an absolute beauty. Jim Clark's 1965 Indianapolis 500 winner. Model 38 Lotus-first rear-engined winner and first non-american winner.
Because we love serendipity, here is a brief Bio of Jim Clark, an inaugural inductee to the Scottish sports hall of fame which seems appropriate on a day when Scotland votes a referendum on Independence....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Clark
Again,thanks for a great post.
For those not familiar;
This was the last thing I went through before I left, and I regret not taking a single photo, but it was a very interesting concept and design.
It was indicated that the museum had the only surviving example. Pretty cool.
